Indigenous Desert Spirit Journey with TEAR 2010

Our idea with this week in the desert was
to connect with Indigenous People by re-connecting with the land. We wanted to
allow an Indigenous person to share their story around a campfire and for this
to open up ways of how reconciliation might occur. With Josh our Indigenous
host and Ian Robinson who has done a PhD in Desert Spirituality organising the
logistics, eight Aussie blokes went bush for 7 days in winter.

Although on one level cynics could say it
was a 4 wheel driving camping holiday, there was much to process and
contemplate on. If we weren’t processing how the desert was significant for the
Hebrews, John the Baptist and Jesus we were exploring Josh’s take on Indigenous
Spirituality and Christianity and when we weren’t allowing God to speak to us
through the desert we were thinking of how we can take something of the
stillness and space the desert provides back to our lives in suburbia.

A couple of significant moments stood out.
It was one of the first nights of our trip that Josh quietly took me aside and
pointed out the Southern Cross and showed me the Emu in the sky. He told me
that the Emu means that the Creator will one day return and judge us, hold us
accountable for our lives and when the beak opens, his return is imminent. I
asked him, “What did your people think when Christians shared the bible with
them?”He replied, “We already knew
that, bro”. This made me think of a term called “prevenient grace”. My
understanding of this is that in every culture God has been at work; and that
there is in every culture marks of goodness and ‘Godness’. Likewise in every
culture there are parts that need redeeming.

Secondly, I was standing on a mountain
looking over Lake Barlee, the largest Salt Lake in W.A. and having been
immersed in stories of the land of the last 40 000 years for the last 5 days,
Ian said, “60% of the mountain is iron ore. Take a good look around because it
probably won’t be here in 10 years time”. I almost felt sick; I know I felt deeply
sad. Our present culture thinks solely of short-term monetary gain and how we
are prepared to destroy a part of the earth that has existed for thousands of
years with years of history of fauna and flora and culture for money.

Much of our time was spent exploring the
land, animals, insects, flowers, rock formations, tribal birthing grounds and
sacred sights. After marvelling at the wonder of it all, it was a jolt for us
to realise that Josh was also a hunter for his tribe. He shot a few kangaroos
and killed an echidna for us to eat, yet did so with great respect for them. He
spoke in his language to them and explained his need to eat. City life
disconnects us from killing and skinning and gutting.We were confronted that if we are going to
choose to eat meat then this is the process that we have to re-connect with.
Some of us were jolted by what appeared to be a paradox of great reverence and
respect for the land and trying to connect with God while shooting, skinning
and gutting and eating roos. We then remembered that we respect the land not
just because we should but also because our survival depends on its survival.

Many significant events occurred in those
seven days. One guy confessed his hurt of 30 years being rejected by Indigenous
kids being brought up in a mission to Josh. We learnt so much from each other
and bonded closely, swapping cars regularly.

We were confronted also by Josh’s
spirituality. Prior to us visiting a site he would speak in language to his
ancestors, asking permission for us to visit the land. He would often then say
that the ancestors and he felt very sad about the loss of their culture but
also welcoming of us non-Indigenous people that we want to learn about it.
Sometimes he said he say a man that would not allow him to enter a birthing
site but that we could enter. When I dared ask Josh about all this he said that
there are some aspects of “the tribal law’ that he leaves behind but the ways
of the bush and the knowledge of the land he adheres to because this doesn’t
contradict his Christianity. Some of us felt awkward that he addressed the dead
but at the same time we felt we were paying him the respect due, as this is his
land. He, in turn, felt that we weren’t
paying due respect to God, treating the Almighty with too much familiarity,
that we argued about the Scripture instead of just believing it and obeying it,
and that our spirituality was about what we could get out of it for ourselves.
Fair comment.

Lastly, we were trying to figure out small
steps of how we could ‘take the desert back with us’. Some thought of having
camp fires of silence everyday in their back yards, some thought of community
camp fires instead of movie or tv watching. Some of us want to connect with
Indigenous people more often and live more simply, some are making changes in
order to serve God more effectively and all of us are still processing what the
desert meant for us. One thing we realised is that this Indigenous Desert Spirit
Journey fed the roots and shoots of our faith; it nurtured our souls and
challenged our actions.